It's in the jeans

POP culture can be defined by pulling on a pair of jeans. No other

cultural product across the spectrum of movies, TV, games, or records

has the appearance of such popularity. Raid a random wardrobe and you'll

pull out a few pairs regardless of the victim's age. The above quote,

while once applicable, can now be disgarded. Jeans are the

establishment!

The irony of a fashion garment so equated with the ideas of

individuality and freedom yet so uniform in style is not lost on the

academic gurus for which a simple pair of Levi's -- not even 501s --

have become like Sanskrit, as they attempt to read between the seams.

American academic John Fiske wrote in his essay, The Jeaning of

America: ''. . . jeans have two main social foci, those of youth and the

blue collar or working-class, but these foci should be seen as semiotic

rather than sociological, this is, as centres of meaning rather than

social categories.''

But to the manufacturers they remain gold mines suspended on two legs

which run all the way to the bank, supporting a multi-billion dollar

industry. Yet jeans remain the source of a growing strand of pop

culture, the story ad. When in 1985 Nick Kamen slid a pair of 501s down

over his thighs and stuck 'em in the laundry while 'I Heard It Through

The Grapevine' shmoozed overhead, a reservoir of popularity was tapped.

In a year sales surged from 85,000 to 650,000.

Recently on TV two adverts battled it out for sales of sliced denim.

The Levi and Wrangler adverts dragged both products back to their

western origins. Levi's Amish advert drew on countless John Ford

westerns to reinforce its rugged image, while the Wrangler ad steals

from the smash-hit movie City Slickers.

Steve Chetham, art director of TBWA, the advertising agency

responsible for Wrangler's #4.5m campaign, said: ''It's an old joke in

our office, if you can't think of an idea, nick a hit movie. It's been

done so many times and it's usually a substitute for an idea; in our

case we felt it was very, very valid.''

Advertising and marketing has long hung on to the coat-tails of the

latest craze, using telly ads to brand a product cool by association.

''Adverts usually follow. Occasionally marketing will come up with

something totally original. But normally we follow about six months

after the latest trend,'' said Steve.

''It's more difficult for a client to buy advertising that is totally

new and doesn't borrow from anything. You have no idea, nothing to gauge

it against. If you know a particular trend or a particular type of music

is of the moment and popular you associate your brand with that music or

film and hopefully that will be reflected on the product.''

Levi's retain a chic arrogance around the adverts which relaunched a

dozen hit singles. Despite stealing from movies like The Hustler and The

Swimmer, the backroom boys from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the ad agency

which created them, see themselves like their product, as originals.

''Levi adverts are a culture themselves, but it's very hard to

rationalise why because it's an emotional thing you are doing.

''I think the key is to think consciously what kids like, rather than

what advertising people like. If you find what kids think is popular you

are on the right track. We don't try to copy anybody else. Instead of

following trends we like to start them.''

Paul Gambaccini wrote that American television exists to fill the time

between commercials in a way that maximises the viewing and

effectiveness of the ads. Today the ITV network recently transmitted the

advertising industry's Golden Arrow awards ceremony, a sure sign of

cultural acceptance.

And why not? They are often as entertaining as the programmes they

interrupt, wielding budgets that, taken per minute, tower above those of

programme makers impoverished by cut-backs. Adverts pick'n'mix with pop

culture, using and abusing the latest hype. Pot Noodle mixed in with

U2's Zoo TV to produce an energised advert a light-year's leap from the

bland product, and almost touching Sega and Nintendo for Britain's best.

Coke and Pepsi have for years slugged it out over which drink we slug

back and in that time they've created a style of advert which

encapsulates the all-American taste. Coca-Cola, in just over 100 years,

has irrevocably changed world culture, becoming a form of American

imperialism. In comparison, Irn Bru boosted its sales with an advert

which raided other adverts which raided pop culture.

Pop culture studies have previously branched in two directions: the

first celebrating a product of the people while in the second, condemned

as a mass culture imposed on powerless people by marketing moguls.

Professor Fiske is an advocate of a third, more tolerant, approach

which recognises the dominant forces and applauds the methods by which

pop culture evades them to remain of the people.

Jeans and advertisments may indeed be the products of conglomerates

but they fail if the windows of the tall corporate offices don't look

out on to the streets.